The Anonymous Widower

The Price Of Freedom

I had a tidy up this morning and found a lot of orange rail tickets.

Orange Rail Tickets

These tickets are some Singles, but mainly Returns to places on the fringes of London.

• Aylesbbury Vale Parkway £9.65 ReturnBedford £12.00 Single
• Cambridge £10.25 Single
• Dorking £3.25 Return
• Gerrards Cross £4.05 Single
• Gillingham £6.25 Return
• Henley-on-Thames £6.85 Return
• Leatherhead £2.65 Return
• Maidstone £7.20 Return
• Marlow £5.70 Return
• Milton Keynes 12.60 Return
• Oxford £11.90 Return
• Oxted £2.80 Return
• Rochester £5.55 Single
• Seaford £14.15 Return
• Slough £2.85 Return
• Swanley £2.45 Return
• Tilbury £2.45 Single
• Uckfield £8.85 Return
• Windsor and Eton Riverside £5.20 Single
• Working £5.15 Return

Some of these journeys may seem better value than you can get.

But then as I live in London and have a Freedom Pass, which gives me free travel to the Zone 6 Boundary of London’s travel system, so I’m buying a ticket from that boundary to my destination, which I then buy with a discount, as I have a Senior Railcard.

I also live close to Dalston Junction station, which is one of an increasing number of stations, where you can purchase a ticket from the Zone 6 boundary to a large number of stations, in a ring around London, in a ticket machine without resource to either the Internet or a Ticket Office.

What would be better, would be able to associate a bank card with my Freedom Pass and Senior Railcard. So if I used the bank card as a ticket, like millions do across London every day, it would deduct the cost of my travel to the Zone 6 boundary, that I get free with my Freedom Pass, and then charge me accordingly.

An Estate Agent, who I meet on the street by my house and with whom I often have  a quick chat, believes that inward migration of older people into London is driven by the following factors.

• Availability of quality housing, that is comparable in price  to a large residence in a good location in the countryside.
• Free public transport for most over sixty-five. Even if you weren’t born in the UK
• Lots of free museums and galleries.
• Lots of paid for events, culture and attractions.
• World-class free healthcare.
• The ability to live without a car.

The last time we met, he told me how he’d just sold a French couple a quality two-bedroom house round the corner to help get round some of France’s tax and inheritance rules.

Who’d have thought that London would be a place where people retire?

But then since about 2000, my late wife, C and myself had planned to sell-up in Suffolk at some time and move to somewhere like Hampstead.

Sadly, she didn’t make it, so I came by myself to the more edgy and plebian Hackney.

But I don’t regret the change of location one iota.

Where will I explore today?

June 11, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Freedom Pass, Hackney